Sitting in quarantine, you do not have to be bored or indulge in sad thoughts. It is much better to replenish your knowledge of the cinema of other countries, besides the American one, which you usually watch (we know that this is so). How about Korean novelties for 2019? Introducing the best films - with traditional high ratings; Koreans are tough guys; their country's cinema has a lot of invigorating extreme.
Parasites (Gisaengchung)
- Rating: KinoPoisk - 8.0; IMDb - 8.6
- thriller, drama, comedy
The Kim family - father, mother, romantic son and cynical daughter - huddle in the basement and are interrupted by small side jobs. One day a friend offers his son to replace him with a tutor at a schoolgirl from a wealthy Pak family. The young man pretends to be a student and gets a job in a posh house. Soon he comes up with the idea of how to drag his entire family to the Pak, fortunately, employers turn out to be generous people and a little naive. But they constantly wrinkle their nose, feeling the presence of the Kims ...
This nose wrinkled in disgust, this difference between rich and poor - Pong Joon-Ho's strong point, who won gold in Cannes and four Oscars for "Parasites". A film on an acutely social theme begins as a farce, continues with a black comedy, turns almost into a horror, and ends with a tragedy, and the director treats each genre with skill. Anyone who wants to keep abreast of the best novelties of modern cinema must watch this colorful tape!
The one who sits inside (Nae aneui geunom)
- Rating: KinoPoisk - 7.3; IMDb - 6.8
- comedy, fantasy, melodrama
Former mafioso Chan Phan-su has a life in which he punched his way through with his fists, until one day a fat schoolboy falls on him. Both end up in the hospital, and only one leaves it - a fat schoolboy, in whose body a mafia is stuck. He has to start going to school, where before the boy was not kicked only by the lazy one.
The old Hollywood story about the exchange of bodies is probably no longer possible to play in a new way, but the result is an energetic action comedy with well-organized fights, which are interesting to watch for once. The girls will enjoy the appearance of Korean pop idol Jin Young - a supernaturally handsome man.
Little client (Eorin uiroein)
- Rating: KinoPoisk - 7.3; IMDb - 7.0
- drama, detective, crime
A young lawyer works in the juvenile welfare service, where he is plagued by little brother and sister, to whose house his father brought his stepmother. Gritting his teeth, he takes the kids to McDonald's and is reluctant to play with them. Despite his lack of enthusiasm, children do not stick to him. It soon becomes clear that their stepmother is beating them half to death.
A forensic drama can shock even viewers with strong nerves, but the list of Korean films without something unimaginably violent would certainly not be complete. However, this time it is not about the specifics of Korean cinema: the picture is based on real events, and none of the most violent Korean films is worse than real domestic violence.
Kim Ji-yeong, born in 1982 (82nyeonsaeng Kim Ji-yeong)
- Rating: KinoPoisk - 7.6; IMDb - 7.4
- drama
The most ordinary woman with the most common name in South Korea once dreamed of becoming a writer, then resigned herself to work in journalism, and then completely abandoned her ambitions: she got married and had a child. A wife, mother, daughter-in-law, a good housewife are her usual daily roles. Until one day she starts having memory lapses, during which she becomes someone else.
An important feminist film was essentially ignored last year, although it is a serious statement about the position of women in the modern world. The stake is made on the utter routine of what is happening, on the calm tone of the story: the heroine is all right. In addition, we have before us a man who has never found himself in his life and is now rebelling in quiet madness against his society-approved non-existence.
Witness (Jeungin)
- Rating: KinoPoisk - 7.0; IMDb - 7.4
- drama, detective, crime
The housekeeper is accused of killing a depressed elderly owner. The only witness is an autistic high school student. An unsuccessful lawyer who has long been mired in the mud of corporate work is trying to build interaction with this difficult girl.
The film is more likely to pretend to be both a judicial drama and a detective story. In fact, this is a classic story of friendship between the cynic and the simple-minded, which has a beneficial effect on both. Both Korean star Jung Woo-sung and aspiring actress Kim Hyang-gi have done a decent job that is mostly worth watching.
Gangster, cop and the devil (Akinjeon)
- Rating: KinoPoisk - 6.7; IMDb - 6.9
- action, crime, thriller
The crime boss is attacked by a serial killer. You can recover from such a blow to the reputation among the "brothers" only by catching a maniac. Then the leader of the organized criminal group enters into an unprecedented alliance with an investigator possessed by the same thirst.
A bloody crime thriller filled with good old ultra-violence, filmed without halftones and tells the story of the struggle of gray against black. Sounds too Hollywood? But no! This story actually happened in South Korea in 2005: two people on opposite sides of the law were catching the same devil. The plot, by the way, can migrate to Hollywood: Sylvester Stallone wants to shoot an American remake of the film.
Extreme work (Geukhanjikeop)
- Rating: KinoPoisk - 6.6; IMDb - 7.1
- comedy, crime, action
A group of underdogs from the drug control department, which is very bad at catching criminals, "herd" one gang. As a cover, detectives buy out a cheap eatery, pretending to be cooks, and suddenly begin to cook fried chicken in it, which no one has tasted better. This is the true vocation! True, they have not yet been released from the capture of the bandits.
The highest-grossing film in the entire history of South Korea is filmed a little in the spirit of Tarantino: biting dialogues, bloody showdowns, crime (or catching it) as a way of life. There is nothing complicated and intricate here: just an easy movie for the evening. With the taste of the finest fried chicken in the world.
Exit (Eksiteu)
- Rating: KinoPoisk - 6.8; IMDb - 7.0
- comedy, action
Amateur rock climber Yong-nam disgraces his family: thirty years, no work, no wife, the clock is ticking. During Yong-nam's mom's jubilee, widely celebrated at the top of the skyscraper, poisonous gas suddenly begins to spread in the building, and someone needs to climb onto the roof to let everyone out. For the guy, his finest hour comes: only he (together with the beauty, according to which he dries, who finds herself at a party, like a piano in the bushes) can climb to the top and save everyone.
Getting the viewer interested in such a specific topic as rock climbing, and even without a clear dramatic structure and mountain landscapes, is not so easy. But the authors of the Korean action-comedy will keep your attention on the screen: you can even cut the suspense with a knife, and you will feel dizzy from flying over skyscrapers, even rocky peaks are not required.
Divine Fury (Saja)
- Rating: KinoPoisk - 6.2; IMDb - 6.1
- horror, fantasy, action
Yong-hu is engaged in mixed martial arts and accumulates a grudge against God: once his father, a policeman, was killed in execution, and God, as they say, did nothing. One day during a fight, a stigma appears from the blow on Yong-ho's palm, and supernatural entities begin to overcome him. In order to understand everything and not hide from the devilish intrigues, the guy has to establish relations with the exorcist priest.
"The Exorcist", "Constantine", MMA and spiritual search are seemingly incompatible, but not for Korean cinema, with its genre eclecticism. Here in one minute they can, like the Knight in The Seventh Seal, talk about the eternal silence of heaven, and in the next frame they beat on the kidneys; and everything is equally expressive.
Long live the king! (Rong ribeu deo king)
- Rating: IMDb - 5.3
- crime, melodrama, action
The gangster boss confronts a principled attorney. A fragile girl slaps him in the face for participating in the dispersal of a peaceful demonstration and thus conquers him. Striving to become a better man, he is hired as an assistant to a former gangster who has now been re-educated, runs a cafe for the poor and is running for Congress.
Rounding out our list of the best high-rated Korean films from 2019 is a cute novelty of two crossed genres: well-meaning social cinema and crime comedy. While branded Korean gangster dramas of bestial seriousness are mainly exported, films in which fountains of blood land on someone's pleasant smile are more popular in Korea itself.
